RALEIGH, N.C. — With Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scheduled to stump today in Charlotte, John McCain's campaign announced plans to ratchet up its efforts in North Carolina.

The McCain campaign said Saturday that it had opened 14 offices in the state and hired 20 paid staffers — a number that said it would likely grow to 20 offices and 25 to 30 staffers.

"This is a state that Sen. Obama and his campaign have targeted and put extraordinary resources and finances in the state," said Mike DuHaime, the political director for the North Carolina McCain campaign.

In another push, President Bush is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Greensboro on Sept. 30 to raise money for the McCain-Palin ticket.

MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE

Palin to meet with Afghanistan's Karzai

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week in New York, McCain campaign officials confirmed Saturday. Karzai and other world leaders will convene in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly. The meeting comes as the campaign works to assure voters that Palin has sufficient understanding of foreign policy to be vice president. She's acknowledged having little experience in international affairs and got her first passport in 2007 to visit Alaska National Guard members serving in Kuwait and Germany.

Gays in California wary of Obama factor

Could Obama's popularity among black voters hurt gay couples in California who want to marry? That is the concern of opponents of Proposition 8, a measure on the November ballot that would amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which was legalized in May by the State Supreme Court. Obama is against the measure. But opponents of the proposed ban worry that many black voters, enthused by Obama's candidacy but traditionally conservative on issues involving homosexuality, could pour into voting stations in record numbers and vote for Proposition 8. "It's a Catch-22," said Andrea Shorter, campaign director of And Marriage for All.

Biden says McCain helped cripple labor

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden said Saturday that McCain has helped Bush destroy regulatory safeguards for the middle class in general and the labor movement in particular. The Delaware senator told hundreds of cheering coal mining families at a United Mine Workers picnic in Castlewood, Va., that McCain went along with Bush in putting anti-labor, corporate interests in charge of the U.S. Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board. "Do any of you doubt that this administration has anything else in mind than doing in the labor movement?" Biden asked.

Obama blasts McCain on deregulation

Stumping in Daytona Beach, Fla., Obama criticized McCain on Saturday for his past advocacy of deregulation, ties to lobbyists and support for partial privatization of the Social Security system many of Florida's elderly residents depend on. McCain, a 26-year veteran of Congress with a long history of opposition to such regulation, now says more controls are needed to prevent a repeat of the financial turmoil that sent the stock market plunging this past week.